Your #1 Challenge (and How Are You Tackling It)?

[wcgadmfrm]

Your #1 Challenge (and How Are You Tackling It)?

Dear WCAG Plus Forum community members,

We have a growing community, and we want this Questions & Answers section to become your go-to place for every doubt and to share your valuable experiences.

Instead of a simple "Q&A," today I'm throwing out a (positive!) challenge:

What is the single biggest challenge you are currently facing in the world of WCAG or web accessibility?

It doesn't matter if you're a veteran or just starting to explore the guidelines. Everyone encounters obstacles!

It could be:

• A specific Success Criterion that's giving you a hard time (e.g., "I can't figure out how to implement Criterion 1.2.7 on extended audio description without going crazy!").
• A testing tool that you're unsure about or find difficult to use.
• A communication problem with your team or clients about the importance of accessibility.
• The difficulty in balancing accessibility and creative design.
• Managing multimedia content (video, audio) with WCAG in mind.
• Any other aspect that makes you scratch your head!

But don't stop at the question!

We're also interested in knowing: how are you trying to tackle this challenge? Have you found any resources, a trick, an approach that's helping you (or not)?

This isn't an exam, but an opportunity to:
1. Feel less alone: Discover that others face similar problems.
2. Learn from others: Receive advice and different perspectives.
3. Help others: Share your experience and perhaps the solution you've found.

Participating is simple:
Reply to this topic with your "number 1 challenge" and, if you wish, with some details on how you're managing it.

We can't wait to read your contributions and turn these challenges into opportunities for collective growth!

Warm regards,

Michele (wcgadmfrm)
WCAG Plus Forum Team

[wcgadmfrm]

My #1 Challenge: Getting Accessibility to Start from Day One

Hello everyone, I'll be the first to reply to get this discussion started!

My biggest challenge, as both a forum administrator and in my daily work, is convincing my development and design teams that accessibility isn't an "extra" to be added at the end, but a fundamental part of the project from the very beginning.

Often, accessibility is seen as a later phase, a check to be done at the last minute, which makes corrections expensive and time-consuming. My team struggles to understand that making a small effort upfront (like using the right HTML tags or thinking about tab order) can prevent huge headaches down the road.

How am I trying to tackle this?

I've started creating "micro-training" sessions that last about 10 minutes at the start of project meetings, showing concrete examples of how an inaccessible site creates barriers for real people. I've also started to encourage the use of our own automated tool, wcagplus.com, in the early stages of development to show them the issues in real-time, hoping that this visual and "in-the-moment" approach is more effective.

What about you? What's your number one challenge? I hope my experience gives you the courage to share yours!